CANADA STOCKS-TSX falls with oil price, earnings in focus

TORONTO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Toronto’s main stock index fell on Thursday, hurt by weakening oil prices and by gold producers that failed to find support even though gold prices turned higher.

Miners Goldcorp (G.TO) and Barrick Gold (ABX.TO) were among some of the index’s top overall decliners, unable to benefit from a move higher in the gold price after the U.S. futures regulator said it would review possible position limits on gold and silver.

Oil prices fell for a fourth straight session as weak U.S. economic signals and high inventories spurred fears of a sluggish rebound in demand in the world’s largest energy consumer. Also hurting prices was a proposal by the U.S. regulator to limit how many energy contracts hedge funds, investment banks and other speculators can control. [ID:nCFTCREG]

“Commodities are the ones dragging us down but I don’t think it’s anything serious. We’ve had a nice pop from the beginning of the year,” said Ian Nakamoto, director of research at MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE closed down 49.18 points, or 0.41 percent, at 11,804.38. Half of the index’s 10 main groups were in the red, including the commodity-linked sectors.

The energy group and the mining-heavy materials group are heavyweight sectors of the S&P/TSX composite, making up nearly half of its weighting, and they regularly set the index’s direction.

Nakamoto said the index’s course in the next several weeks would likely be determined by upcoming waves of earnings reports.

Technology shares were among winners on Thursday, rising ahead of quarterly results from bellwether chipmaker Intel (INTC.O) that came in well ahead of expectations after the market close. [ID:nWNAB4525]

The S&P/TSX composite’s infotech group gained 1.5 percent, leading sectors that advanced on Thursday. Shares of Research In Motion RIM.TO rose 1.1 percent to C$68.12 to top overall gainers for a second straight session.

Canadian corporate results are slowly trickling in, though the majority won’t be in for another couple of weeks. Shaw Communications Inc (SJRb.TO) dipped 0.19 percent to C$20.66 after it reported mixed first-quarter results and provided disappointingly scant details of its wireless plans. [ID:nN13116965]